Elizabeth Gracen

Elizabeth Ward Gracen, born Elizabeth Grace Ward on April 3, 1961, is an American actress, film producer, director, and former beauty pageant contestant. She is best known for winning the Miss America 1982 title and for playing the recurring character Amanda, a 1,200-year-old immortal, in the television series Highlander: The Series and its spin-off Highlander: The Raven.

Gracen was born in Ozark, Arkansas, to Patricia Hampe, a nurse, and Jimmy Young Ward, a poultry worker. Raised in Booneville, she later moved with her family to Russellville, Arkansas, where she graduated from Russellville High School in 1979. While attending Arkansas Tech University as a junior accounting major, she entered beauty pageants. After winning Miss Arkansas in 1981 and Miss America in 1982, she used her scholarship funds to study acting at HB Studios in New York City.

Following her year serving as Miss America, Gracen relocated to California to pursue acting. She made her feature film debut in Three for the Road. Her subsequent film credits include Marked for Death, Pass The Ammo, Lower Level, Discretion Assured, and the television feature 83 Hours Till Dawn. In May 1992, Gracen posed nude for Playboy magazine.

Her television work includes appearances in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Sands of Time, and The Death of the Incredible Hulk. Gracen held starring roles in the NBC series Extreme as well as the syndicated series Renegade and Queen of Swords, alongside her defining multi-series role as Amanda in the Highlander franchise.

After filing for bankruptcy protection in December 1999 and appearing in Interceptor Force 2, Gracen took a leave of absence from acting starting in 2002. She later began doing voiceover work, participating in the revived radio anthology Suspense on SiriusXM for Blue Hours Productions and voicing a character in the 2012 animated film War of the Worlds: Goliath.

In 2012, Gracen established Flapper Films, and she later starred in the 2014 indie film Coherence. She founded Flapper Press in 2016, self-publishing the young adult fantasy novel Shalilly. Gracen also made her directorial debut with the documentary short "The Damn Deal," which focused on young drag queens in Arkansas competing in female impersonator beauty pageants.

Gracen has been married three times: to Jon Birmingham from 1982 to 1984, to actor Brendan Hughes from 1989 to 1994, and later to Adam Murphy, with whom she has a daughter. In 1998, Gracen stated she had a one-night stand in 1983 with then-Governor Bill Clinton, recanting an earlier denial and issuing an apology. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr subsequently issued a subpoena for her testimony in the Paula Jones lawsuit, though Gracen eluded the subpoena through unscheduled travel and overseas filming schedules.